An Evening In Vienna *Now with VIDEO*

An Evening In Vienna *Now with VIDEO* - 11/13/1207:43 AM

To all PW members,

This Friday Nov. 16th, Cunningham Piano Company is hosting an afternoon open house featuring food, wine, and an open salon format of informal performances, all of which is featured around Vienna. Simon Oss, a Director of Bosendorfer, will be our special guest, as well as a collection of rare Art Case pianos from Bosendorfer.

Following the afternoon will be an evening recital beginning at 7 pm, featuring Philadelphia Orchestra members Kimberly Fisher and John Koen.

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/13/1206:37 PM

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/13/1207:06 PM

Which art models will be there?

I've only seen three of them "live". Didn't like the Swarovski, liked the Porsche(?), and loved the Chopin A LOT. In general, I like the Bosendorfer art cases far more than those by Steinway(where I find about half of them "strange").

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/13/1207:20 PM

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/13/1207:45 PM

**WARNING** Visitors may experience light-headedness, butterflies or other physical symptoms of love. Customers who are weak-in-the-knees will be provided comfortable benches and invited to sit down.

That sounds exciting, Rich.

Plover, the Chopin is my favorite of the traditional styles and the Porche my favorite of the modern styles, and I've seen a bunch of them. No company is immune from a few strange styles, but Bosendorfer rarely misses. Their sense of style reflects the best from history. I think contemporary designs are the toughest because they have to add an idea but not fall in just a few seasons like fashion.

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/14/1207:09 AM

PL,

We will be getting several traditional art cases along with a contemporary or two. They arrived last evening but I was out of the office.

One that I know is here is the Strauss:

Simon Oss, our special guest, will be telling the story of the original Strauss Bosendorfer that was stolen during WWII, eventually was found in the United States, and returned to Vienna in 2008. Pretty neat stuff!

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/16/1204:17 PM

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/16/1204:31 PM

now if you could only import the Albertina and the musical instrument museum that's across the street from the Kunsthistorisches we'd be all set. And of course the horse and carriage ride from the hotel... and a Würstelstand or two to quench your appetite and thirst along the way. Oh well - at least the pianos should be great!

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/17/1204:04 PM

Re: An Evening In Vienna - 11/17/1205:41 PM

Originally Posted By: pianoloverus

What is the wood veneer on the Vienna art case?

PL, The piano is constructed of a vavona burl, which is meticulously matched over the entire case of the piano. The very light trim is inlayed pearwood and the name on the fallboard, instead of being brass, is also pearwood.

The theme of the evening was color - color of tone - not color of cabinetry.

Although the program was very varied the theme was demonstrated beautifully. The piano used was a Bosendorfer 200, which IMHO, is the perfect scale for a small recital gathering (we had just over 100 people) and is a very easy piano to balance within a chamber music setting.

The second clip is Andy Wasserman, (www.andywasserman.com) who I asked to play 45 minutes before the concert because a scheduled musician could not make the performance. After thinking for a moment he said that he might play a medley of the tunes from "The Sound of Music". You might think that would be very boring, but listen to the clip. His entire performance was improvised.